A-Level grades explained: The complete A*-E scale guide

A-Level grades are the currency universities read your application in. Get the top ones and doors open. Miss them by a mark and Clearing is where you end up. It matters, and it's worth knowing how the system really works rather than relying on half-remembered rules from 15 years ago.

This guide covers the A*-E scale as it runs in England today. How A* is set on the linear A-Levels students sit now, why grade boundaries change every summer, what each grade is worth in UCAS points, and where AS fits (or doesn't fit) in the current setup. Key facts are drawn from Ofqual, the Department for Education and UCAS.

A-Levels in England are graded on a six-point scale: A*, A, B, C, D and E. Anything below E is recorded as U (ungraded). There's no pass mark in the traditional sense: E is the lowest awarded grade, but universities, employers and sixth forms all have their own thresholds for what they'll accept.

The scale looks straightforward and mostly is, but two things trip people up. The first is A*, which was added later than the rest of the scale and works differently from the other grades. The second is boundaries, which move every year and often aren't where students expect them to be.

A* was first awarded in 2010, according to Ofqual. Under the old modular A-Levels, the rule was straightforward: to get an A*, a student needed an overall A plus 90% or higher in Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) marks at A2. Simple, and the 90% rule stuck in a lot of people's heads.

The reformed linear A-Levels changed that. First taught from 2015 and first awarded in 2017 to 2019 depending on subject, they don't use UMS at all. Students sit all their exams at the end of the two-year course, and there's a single subject-level grade boundary for A*. Each exam board sets that boundary every summer, mainly using a statistical prediction based on the cohort's prior GCSE performance, within rules set by Ofqual.

In practice, A* boundaries often land somewhere between about 70% and 90% of the total marks, depending on the subject, board and year. It is not a fixed percentage. Anyone quoting "you need 90% for A*" as a rule for modern A-Levels is describing a system that no longer exists in England.

Grade boundaries are the raw marks needed for each grade on a specific paper in a specific year. They move because exam difficulty varies from one year to the next. If chemistry paper 2 is harder than usual, boundaries drop so students aren't punished for the paper's difficulty rather than their own performance.

According to Ofqual's guidance on grading, there are no quotas. Boundaries are set through a combination of statistical prediction (based on students' prior GCSE attainment) and expert judgement from senior examiners reviewing scripts on the boundary line. The prediction gives a baseline for how the cohort should perform overall; the examiner review makes sure the actual mark reflects the standard the specification demands.

The practical takeaway: a target of "85% for A" is the wrong way to think about it. The right question is "what raw marks did last year's paper award for A?" And even that only tells you the ballpark. For a concrete example of how much boundaries move, our write-up of the Edexcel A-Level 2025 grade boundaries shows just how variable one board's numbers can be.

UCAS points translate qualifications into a single number so universities can quote offers consistently. Not every university uses tariff points (some just ask for grades directly), but if you're looking at ones that do, the A-Level values are set by UCAS as follows.

So AAA is 144 points, AAA is 152, and AAA is 168. An Extended Project Qualification adds up to 28 more (an A* EPQ), which is why some universities include it in their offers. AS-Levels also carry tariff points (worth around 40% of a full A-Level), though far fewer students sit them now.

The UCAS Clearing guide is a useful companion here if you're worried about points totals falling short of an offer.

This is one of the biggest changes from the old system. Under modular A-Levels, AS-Level was the first year and counted for 50% of the final A-Level. Students often took four ASes then dropped one before A2.

That isn't how it works in England any more. Since the 2015 to 2017 reforms, AS is a standalone qualification. Marks from AS do not contribute to a student's A-Level, and most schools no longer enter students for AS at all. If your child took an AS, they'll receive a separate certificate, but it won't feed into the A-Level grade at the end of Year 13.

Wales and Northern Ireland retain modular AS plus A2 structures for some qualifications through WJEC and CCEA, so if you're outside England the rules can be different. Check the specific board and specification your student is entered for.

The EPQ isn't an A-Level, but it comes up in every A-Level conversation because it's graded on the same A*-E scale and carries UCAS tariff points. Worth half an A-Level (28 tariff points at A*), the EPQ is a standalone research project students design and complete themselves. Some Russell Group universities factor it into offers, occasionally lowering their A-Level requirements by a grade if a student achieves an A or A* in the EPQ.

The key point: an EPQ won't rescue weak A-Level grades, but it can strengthen an application at the margins.

For context on what a typical year looks like, Ofqual's at a glance summary published on 13 August 2026 reported 835,950 A-Level results awarded to 320,505 students across 57 subjects. 28.3% of results were graded A* or A, up marginally from 28.2% in 2025. The five most-entered subjects were Mathematics, Psychology, Biology, Chemistry and Economics.

Students getting straight As remain rare. Ofqual reported that 7,245 18-year-olds achieved A in every A-Level they took in 2026, and 25 of those took five or more A-Levels. If you're helping a student target the top of the scale in physics specifically, our guide on how to get an A* in A-Level Physics breaks down what that involves.

The scale is only one piece. Landing the grade your offer asks for comes down to how you prepare across the two years. Cognito's AQA A-Level Biology notes and equivalents across the sciences and maths line up with the current specifications and let you see, question by question, where you sit against grade boundaries as you work through past papers.

One last thing worth flagging: results day itself. If you narrowly miss an offer, some universities may still confirm your place, especially if they have spaces, so contact them straight away, and Clearing exists precisely to match students to courses when firm offers fall through. Knowing the mechanics of the scale won't change your grades, but knowing your options on the day certainly can.